Phnom Sampov

This hilltop temple on the street to Pailin is one of the foremost locations of Battambang’s killing fields, with a huge cave in which victims had been thrown both after being bludgeoned or having their throats reduce, or virtually to their loss of life.

Children, some of whom communicate very good English, loaf around the base of the temple and could stroll up with you and act as your courses. They will anticipate a few money in go back for showing you around.

Phnom Sampeau is excellent visited in early morning or overdue afternoon while the light and the fantastic views are at their first-rate. We’ve encountered some motodops who have expressed an unwillingness to pressure out to Phnom Sampeau, claiming that it is a horrific region that vacationers should not see. The road out is partly sealed. Ask your motodop to take the primary street out, however come returned thru one of the many returned dust routes that meander via the paddy. In the late afternoon light, it’s far stunning.

At the summit of this fabled limestone outcrop, 12km southwest of Battambang alongside NH57 (in the direction of Pailin), a complex of temples (admission US$2) – several constructed these days way to donations from foreign places Khmers – affords gorgeous views of the encompassing plains and, to the south, Phnom Banan. Some of the macaques that live around the summit, eating on bananas left as offerings, are pretty ornery.

Between the summit and the cell-phone antenna, a deep canyon – its vertical aspects cloaked in greenery – descends steeply thru a herbal arch to a ‘misplaced international’ of stalactites, creeping vines, air roots, bats and statues of two Angkorian warriors.

In the area between the 2 units of antennas stand two government artillery pieces, one with markings in Russian, the opposite in German. They nevertheless point westwards closer to Phnom Krapeu (Crocodile Mountain), a one-time Khmer Rouge stronghold.
How to get to Phnom Sampeau

About half-manner up the cement get right of entry to road to the summit, a flip-off leads 250m up the hill to the Killing Caves of Phnom Sampeau. An enchanted staircase, flanked by greenery, leads right into a cavern in which a golden reclining Buddha lies peacefully next to a pitcher-walled memorial, committed in 2007, packed with the bones and skulls of a number of the human beings bludgeoned to death through Khmer Rouge cadres before being thrown thru the overhead skylight. Nearby is the vintage memorial, a rusty cage product of fowl wire and cyclone fencing.

At the base of the hill, a 15m-excessive Buddha is being carved out of the cliff face, starting with the pinnacle. While more funds are raised, neighborhood macaques deal with the scaffolding like a massive jungle health club.